ISLAMABAD - Chairman NAB Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal has said that corruption being the root cause of almost all evils gives birth to multifarious problems including nepotism, favouritism and negating meritocracy, transparency and accountability.

He said that NAB’s effective ‘Awareness and Prevention Strategy’ has started yielding excellent results which was appreciated by the World Economic Forum and Transparency International Pakistan in order to aware people about the ill effects of corruption throughout the country.

According to a press release issued by the NAB headquarters here yesterday, Justice Javed Iqbal said that due to the initiatives taken by the present management of NAB, eradication of corruption has become voice of Pakistan.

The Chairman NAB said that NAB strongly believes in ‘Zero Tolerance Policy’ against corruption. He said that NAB’s anti-corruption campaign is carried out widely for awareness and prevention of corruption besides enforcement across the board during 2020.

The excellent feedback received about the NAB’s effective and proactive awareness and prevention campaign in 2020, this campaign is continuing during 2021 in order to aware people about the ill effects of corruption.

He said that NAB hopes that joint efforts of all stakeholders can collaborate to check corruption and corrupt practices before happening with the help of all stakeholders, civil society, media and people at large.

He said that NAB has a mandate to carry out awareness and prevention activities against corruption in pursuance of Section 33C of National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), 1999. Under the NAB’s awareness and prevention campaign across the country, the Bureau has been engaging different governmental, non-governmental organizations, media, civil society and other segments of society in order to aware people at large.

During 2020, the NAB’s awareness campaign was effectively highlighted by the Media Wing of NAB in print and electronic media free of cost without spending any budget of NAB on media campaign. The following initiatives were taken on the directions of Chairman NAB. Due to NAB’s efforts, all ATM machines of all scheduled banks carry NAB’s message “Say No to Corruption” across the country in order to aware people about the ill effects of corruption.

NAB and Higher Education Commission (HEC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for creating awareness amongst the students of various universities and colleges.

Due to this collaboration, over 50,000 Character Building Societies have been established in various universities and colleges across the country so that students may be made aware about the ill effects of corruption at an early age.

NAB and SNGPL, IESCO, LESCO, GEPCO, FESCO and K-Electric joined hands to print NAB messages in order to disseminate awareness about the ill effects of corruption. IESCO and other organizations have started printing NAB messages on electricity bills and gas bills.

NAB in collaboration with PTA has also disseminated its message “Say No to Corruption” to all mobile phone subscribers across the country through different mobile phone companies on the eve of International Anti-Corruption Day in order to make people belonging to all segments of society aware about the ill effects of corruption.

NAB in collaboration with the Federal Film Censor Board continuously aired its video message “Say No to Corruption” in all cinema houses of the country.

NAB message “Say No to Corruption” is being printed on all government tenders issued for publication in newspapers in Balochistan and Gilgit Baltistan.